


illustrious order of wandering stars

by kaserl



Category: The Terror (TV 2018)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Renaissance, Epistolary, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:42:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27362920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kaserl/pseuds/kaserl
Summary: Francis Crozier and James Clark Ross are Renaissance humanists and astronomers, who also happen to be very much in love.A fill for my Terror Bingo square "Renaissance AU"
Relationships: Captain Francis Crozier/Sir James Clark Ross
Comments: 10
Kudos: 13
Collections: The Terror Bingo





	illustrious order of wandering stars

**Author's Note:**

> My deepest thanks to [@tulliolaciceronis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tulliolaciceronis) for betaing this for me and for all the cheerleading! Rossier server, this one's for you.

Francis yawned, glancing up from his pages of astronomical calculations only to realize it had grown truly dark while he had been working. Someone, likely James, had lit the candle he kept on the corner of his desk and he hadn’t even noticed. James himself had apparently given up on his own work and was leaning out the window, staring up at the sky, a cross staff hanging neglected in his hand. “Anything new?” Francis asked, setting his quill down.

“There can’t be something new in the sky every night,” James said, still looking up.

“No, but sometimes there is,” Francis said. “It’s why you still bother to look.”

James hummed. “I could see more if I could see farther.”

“You’re still planning on going to Padua, then?” Francis said, standing and moving towards the window.

“Rumor has it that he’s improved on the Dutch perspective glass, maybe enough to make it useful for astronomy. Can you even imagine how much is out there, Francis?”

“Barely,” Francis admitted, leaning on the wall next to the window. “And I’m certain there are things that I can’t imagine.”

“We could see some of them,” James said, finally tearing his eyes away from the sky. “Come to Padua with me--even if we can’t obtain the designs to have our own contraption built, we might be able to use his prototype and see something.”

“If I start letting you take me places, I don’t want to know where I’ll find myself next,” Francis teased. “Your curiosity is insatiable, James.”

“It’s not the only thing that’s insatiable,” James retorted with a smirk. Sometimes that comment would have been enough for Francis to drag James off to bed, but tonight he just laughed, and James himself started giggling a moment later.

“You’ll ask me to accompany you to the far North next,” Francis said once they had recovered.

“It’s Padua, Francis, hardly the ends of the earth. I’d go, though, given the opportunity,” James admitted.

“You would,” Francis said, leaving the fact that he would follow unsaid. James knew.

“So, you’ll come?”

Francis shook his head. James’ face fell. “James dear, it’s not—I want to come with you, and you know I don’t even mind traveling, but someone needs to keep making the observations we’ve been doing here. The whole point is for them to be as consistent as possible, and you know none of the young ones we’ve been working with are reliable enough yet to be left entirely in charge, not for that length of time.”

“They’re not that much younger than me, old man,” James said, reaching out and ruffling Francis’ hair where he knew the occasional gray strand was beginning to appear. “And they have potential.”

“They do have potential,” Francis agreed. Many of the younger aspiring astronomers he had met struck him as the type who pursued science because they felt they ought to, but the latest few that he and James had started to teach were genuinely enthusiastic. “If you were willing to wait a couple more years to go, I’d leave our data in their hands and come with you in a heartbeat, but I know you don’t want to wait.”

“I don’t,” James agreed. “So that’s it? I’ll go and you’ll stay?”

“There are letters,” Francis said with a shrug. “And you won’t be gone for long, will you?” he asked pointedly.

James nodded, though Francis knew he was reluctant to make that promise. Left to his own devices and with no one waiting for him at home, Francis thought James might wander forever. (He could hardly fault James for it—if not for James and their shared career tethering him to England as firmly as he tethered James, he thought he might leave one day and never return.)

* * *

_James dear,_  
_I hope the travel is treating you well. ~~Our~~ My observations have gone well since you left, although I feel that you have been away for scarcely more than a week—Bird and McMurdo have been much help to me, but they cannot replace you in my heart nor in our labors. Franklin wrote to me yesterday, wishing to know if we have discovered anything useful. He does not seem to understand the purpose of these observations over many months. I suppose it is not the most satisfying pursuit for those who only care about the results, rather than the data collected along the way, but still, my dear, I wish you were here to respond. Your skill at placating those who think we move too slowly is much greater than my own._  
_I have recently received a copy of…_  
_…write to me when you are able, James dear, and know that I am yours, always. Think how exceedingly I have always well wished unto you, and measure the rest of my affections towards you accordingly._  
_Francis_

_Dear Francis,_  
_I am writing you from Paris—I know that it is not Padua. I promise not to be away much longer than intended, but I had written to some of our fellows in other parts of Europe before I departed to tell them I would be nearby, and more than I expected invited me to visit…_  
_…as I am sure you understand, I could not decline an invitation from any of those men. I would need to be the greatest sort of fool to do so. I do wish you were here, Francis, for it feels strange to talk about our work without you present, as if I am claiming that it is mine alone. Still, I have already learned so much and I have only been staying with…_  
_…I cannot fit all that we have spoken of in a letter, it seems. I will simply have to tell you when I come home. My greetings and paper have all one end together, only our friendship indissoluble can never be forgotten,_  
_James_

_James dear,_  
_I hope this letter reaches you, as your route has become rather unpredictable—I have given instructions that it be delivered to your address in Padua if you cannot be located along the way, so I suppose you will read it eventually. I saw an odd phenomenon last night…_  
_…I cannot yet explain what it was that I saw, but I hope to see it again tonight. Perhaps it will be our first true discovery! I am sure that you will come back and overshadow anything that I am able to find on my own, but it is something for now to keep me occupied. I find myself with more hours than I can fill with you gone—all our little employments require less of my time than I realized without you to distract me. My nights are as busy as ever, but even though I sleep for much of them, the days are long now._  
_Bird has found a new interest. We recently received some newly published accounts of the New World, and he has been lost day and night in reading about the inhabitants of those lands and the inhabitants of other distant isles. He spent all of Tuesday talking about the artwork some peoples place on their skin, apparently far more elaborate than the cross some of our returning pilgrims bear. I am beginning to think he wishes to have his own. Likewise, McMurdo is well…_  
_…I miss you, my dear, but I shall not keep you further occupied, so here I end my long and tedious discourse._  
_With all my love,_  
_Francis_

_Francis,_  
_I am sure you will be receiving many letters about this and I do not know if mine will be the first, but I simply had to tell you—Jupiter has moons…_  
_…I have enclosed a copy of the treatise so that you can read it as well, please do write to me as soon as you have finished it. I want your thoughts more desperately than I can say._  
_James_

_James dear,_  
_I cannot express my excitement strongly enough…_  
_…though I am sure that all these pages of thoughts have occurred to you already. I do fear, however, that not all will receive this news with the joy that we have…_  
_…please keep yourself safe, my dear, and ~~do not forget in your excitement that you promised me it would be less than a year~~ come home when you can, although of course I understand that you will wish to speak with him more than ever._  
_You cannot know how I do miss you,_  
_Francis_

_Dear Francis,_  
_My deepest apologies that it has been so many weeks since I last wrote—I was caught up in excitement. Since my last letter…_  
_…as you can see I have been occupied with many things, though of course I should have written before now. I hope you will be happy to hear the news that I am leaving Padua today and beginning the journey home. I do not know if I will receive any letters from you while en route, so I will end with my best wishes until we are once again reunited. I commend myself to fortune, rejoicing in your well-wishes and my own confidence in my safety._  
_With love,_  
_James_

* * *

Francis felt as if he were a child again, waiting for the arrival of a beloved relative who always brought sweets when they came to visit. James had written from the road two weeks previous, informing Francis that he expected to return home in less than three weeks, and thus Francis had spent the entire day before (and the day before that) aimlessly wandering the house, unable to focus on his work and unable to stay asleep any longer than his body demanded. Jopson, understanding as he was, had stayed out of Francis’ way—Francis would really have to speak with James about finding room in their budget to give the man a raise once he came home. They had been unimaginably fortunate to find someone who was intelligent, competent enough to run their (admittedly small and simple) household alone, and discreet enough to look the other way whenever Francis and James let slip in their words or actions that they were lovers in addition to being close friends who had chosen to live together for convenience because so much of their work was necessarily done in the middle of the night. It would be a shame if Jopson ever received an offer for a better-paying job and chose to leave them.

Francis, hearing the front door open and close, stood up from his desk, moving so quickly that he banged his knee on the chair. Ignoring the pain in his knee, he ran for the stairs, already able to pick out James’ voice as he handed his luggage over to Jopson, who had naturally managed to reach the door in seconds despite making himself invisible for the entire day. Francis forced himself to slow to a walk as he reached the top of the stairs, in part to preserve his dignity and in part to prevent himself from falling down the stairs and doing himself further injury.

All hope of preserving his dignity fled as soon as James looked up at him and Francis’ eyes filled with tears. He stumbled down the stairs and let himself fall into James’ arms, comforted only by the fact that as soon as they were pressed together James inhaled sharply in the familiar way that Francis knew meant that he was trying not to cry.

“I missed you,” Francis mumbled, blinking back tears and feeling like a fool. James had been gone for a while, yes, but it was hardly the first time they had been separated, and neither of them had been in any particular danger.

“I missed you too,” James said, nuzzling Francis’ neck. “Without realizing how much until just now.”

Francis laughed, relieved that the urge to cry was already dissipating. “You must be tired from traveling, yes?” he asked, glancing around to make certain that Jopson had left the room (he must know, he was one of the most observant people Francis had ever met and they were terrible at subtlety, but it was the principle of the thing) before kissing James quickly.

“Not too tired,” James said, a mischievous glint in his eye as he grabbed Francis’ hand and began to pull him up the stairs. Francis followed, with no idea whether James was taking him upstairs to explain everything he had learned while away or to have his way with him—but it didn’t matter. Either way, he would be happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Some of the sign-offs towards the ends of the letters are lightly adapted from a 1607 edition of _The English secretorie, or Methode of writing of epistles and letters with a declaration of such tropes, figures and schemes, as either usually or for ornament sake are therein required. Also the parts and office of a secretorie. Devided into two bookes, now newly revised and in many partes corrected and amended_ by Angel Day.
> 
> The title is drawn from the dedicatory letter at the beginning of Galileo's _Sidereus Nuncius._ As I'm sure some of you have realized, Galileo is the man mentioned throughout the fic and the publication James sends Francis in the middle of the fic is, in fact, _Sidereus Nuncius._ The translation is from Albert Van Helden's edition (it also happens to be extremely literal, the Latin is "illustri vagantium ordine").
> 
> Despite the rest of this note, I really did minimal research for this fic, so I apologize if there are any historical errors! 
> 
> I also wrote this the night I got my Terror Bingo card, shortly after saying that I wasn't sure what I could do with Renaissance AU and mere days after saying that I don't know how to write Rossier. Never say never?
> 
> Edit 11/19: [@tulliolaciceronis](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tulliolaciceronis) wrote an incredible translation of the letters in this fic and meta-academia to go with them, and I love it so much, please go read it!

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Ex Illustri Vagantium Ordine](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27627169) by [annecoulmanross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annecoulmanross/pseuds/annecoulmanross)
  * [Fine New Edition](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28816641) by [annecoulmanross](https://archiveofourown.org/users/annecoulmanross/pseuds/annecoulmanross)




End file.
